Faraday Bicycles, with $110,000 raised for Porteur, rolls into Portland

View full sizeFaraday BicyclesMore than $100,000 has been raised through Kickstarter to develop the Faraday Porteur.

Faraday Bicycles rolls into Portland this weekend, fresh
from raising more than $100,000 in crowdsource funding to develop its
electric-assist bicycle, the Porteur.

It will be a homecoming of sorts. The San Francisco company launched the
Porteur prototype last October at the "Oregon Manifest," a handbuilt bicycle
design competition. As a result of the enthusiastic reception for the bike, the
Porteur's developer, Adam Vollmer, decided to pursue commercial production.
Vollmer grew up in Portland.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, the Faraday Porteur will be on
display near the north side of the Portland Farmers Market. From
noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, the bike will be at Clever Cycles at Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard and Ninth Avenue.

Vollmer and partners launched their Kickstarter crowdsource
funding campaign on July 18, with the goal of raising $100,000 by Aug. 14. That
goal was met by Tuesday afternoon. Slightly less than $110,000 had been raised
by today. The campaign will continue to Saturday, Aug. 14, in the hope of
raising $300,000, which company officials say is the threshold to equip the
bike with Bluetooth connectivity.

Jill Kasser, a company spokeswoman, said 28 Porteurs
have been sold, priced at $3,500. None of the $10,000 collector's edition bikes
had been sold.

Many customers are people want to stay active, to commute
sweat-free, or increase cargo-carrying for errands, Kasser said.

Vollmer was an engineer in the San Francisco
office of design and innovation firm IDEO,
when he teamed last year with Rock Lobster Bicycles of
Santa Cruz, Calif., to create the Faraday. Vollmer, 32,
is a 1998 Grant High School graduate who earned his bachelors degree in
mechanical engineering from Stanford University and masters in mechanical
engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In addition to an electrical system developed in Silicon
Valley, the Porteur features a frame hand built in the USA, ash fenders,
leather grips, a detachable, front-loading cargo carrier and built-in
headlights. But it also joins a market that already has e-bike options,
including German-made Kalkhoff
bikes. The U.S. distribution headquarters for Kalkhoff are in Portland
at Northwest 11th Avenue and Hoyt Street.

Vollmer says his bike is different.

"Certainly,
other e-bikes exist," Vollmer said in an email. "There are some good ones and
some bad ones. As far as we know, no other has the classic aesthetics of the
Faraday. None of the other e-bikes that we've ridden preserve the delightful
ride of a high quality bicycle while adding a powerful pedal assist."